Sociologist Corey Keyes discusses moving from languishing to flourishing, exploring childhood trauma's impact on mental health, coping strategies for overcoming languishing, and the importance of emotional vulnerability in forming meaningful connections.
Moving from languishing to flourishing involves finding sources of meaning and engagement in life.
Languishing is distinct from clinical depression, characterized by emptiness and stagnation without intense negativity.
Deep dives
Understanding Emily Dickinson's Challenging Poem
Emily Dickinson's complex poem features a powerful image of a loaded gun symbolizing a life unfulfilled by its own agency, raising questions of powerlessness and trapped existence. The ambiguity and confrontation in the poem reflect a sense of powerlessness and fury experienced by the speaker.
Corey Keys' Personal Encounter with Languishing
Corey Keys, the author of Languishing, recounts a personal journey of feeling empty and lost, tracing back to traumatic childhood experiences that led to a sense of emptiness and exhaustion. This ongoing battle with languishing serves as a reminder of the impact of trauma and abuse on one's sense of self and well-being.
The Rise of Languishing During the Pandemic
Languishing emerged as a common response during the pandemic, highlighted by a widespread sense of emptiness and loss of direction, affecting individuals regardless of their previous levels of engagement and well-being. The pandemic's disruptions stripped away sources of meaning and engagement, leading to a shared experience of uncertainty and stagnation.
Differentiating Languishing from Clinical Depression
Distinguishing languishing from clinical depression involves recognizing the absence of positive qualities and meaning in life, contrasting with the negative symptoms characterizing depression. Languishing represents a state of emptiness and stagnation, lacking the intense negativity associated with depression, serving as a precursor or coexisting factor that can exacerbate mental health conditions.
Languishing. That feeling of a lack of motivation or direction. Most people feel a sense of languishing at some point in their lives. So how do we move from languishing to flourishing? Sociologist Corey Keyes has spent his career trying to find the answer.
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